Tostadas for a Kids' Luncheon
Quick, Easy, Taste-Great Lunch Children Can Make By Themselves
For a scout's cooking badge, sleepover or birthday kids need prepared ingredients and little supervision to do this simple recipe.
Kids like to make good things to eat, here’s a fantastic recipe to do without help. You can simply make it a nice family meal or go for broke and decorate with bright colored paper plates, streamers and paper sombreros (Mexican hats) for a terrific party. This idea is fantastic for a sleepover, when you need a pick-me-up snack and an organized activity to make the evening feel like more fun.
What's a Tostada?
Kids, treat your family to a weekend lunch they’ll love. Tostadas are a Mexican-American finger-food that can be made either spicy or mild. Most boys and girls can prepare the dish from start to finish, including cleanup.
What’s a tostada? It tastes a little like a taco, but the shell, called a tortilla, isn’t folded, it’s flat. It isn't cooked or baked. The tortillas are made of corn meal. You can buy them at the grocery store in different forms. For tostadas, you’ll want the flat, round, crispy kind. (The package will say the tortillas can be used for tostadas.) You can be as creative as you like, layering chopped vegetables, cheeses, or even cooked meat or chicken. But for this recipe, you don’t have to cook anything at all, unless you want to. Most of the ingredients can be purchased pre-prepared and then assembled.
Here is everything that you will need to feed four hungry people:
Tostadas for Four
Ingredients:
- Eight crispy tortillas, two for each person
- One head of lettuce, any kind, dark greens have the most nutrition
- Two medium tomatoes, sliced
- 1 large bag of shredded Colby cheese, or any firm, yellow cheese you like
- 1 package or 1 can cooked, cubed chicken (from the grocery store butcher department)
- Taco sauce (if you don’t like spicy stuff, you can leave this out)
Directions:
- Gather all the ingredients. Then open the packages, and set them out on a table or counter. Carefully slice tomatoes onto a small plate and then shred lettuce into a small bowl.
- In rows, lay out two tortilla shells for each guest.
- Now, working up and down the rows, put two slices of tomato on each tortilla, then a layer of lettuce. Place four or five cubes of chicken on each, then a layer of cheese. You can sprinkle taco sauce on the tostadas, or let each person do that at the table.
- Finally, put two tortillas on a plate for each person. Clean up any scraps that fell while you worked, wrap and put away leftover ingredients for another meal. This dish goes well with a side of avocado dip, or some sliced fruit or vegetables.
